New York Giants should play Odell Beckham Jr. against the Jets

One of the questions leading up to the New York Giants preseason game against the Jets on Friday night is whether or not Odell Beckham Jr. will play.

It has been over 10 months since New York Giants superstar wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has played in an NFL game. His 2017 season was cut short due to a fractured ankle he sustained in the Giants Week 5 27-22 loss to the Chargers.

Although Beckham is fully healed and has participated in practice throughout training camp and seems to be as fast as ever, he has yet to play in the preseason.

With Friday night representing the last time the starters will play in the preseason, we won’t see OBJ until Week 1 should he skip out on the Snoopy Bowl.

Of course, fans are concerned that Beckham plays in the preseason, injury risks become too much in a meaningless game. But injuries can happen in practice or in a conditioning test as we’ve seen over the summer where players such as Chargers cornerback Jason Verrett.

If the Giants feel comfortable with Beckham practicing, they should feel comfortable with him playing a series or two with the first team offense against the Jets to get reacclimated with the speed of an NFL game.

Though Beckham is the rare exceptional athlete who could go almost a full year without playing competitive football and dominate as soon as he steps back on a football field, you don’t want his first game action in nearly a year to be against Jalen Ramsey and the Jaguars defense.

The Giants should let Beckham play a few snaps on Friday night even if he’s nothing more than a decoy just so he can be in the huddle with his teammates and get some game action before they go up against arguably the best defense in the league in the season opener.